Privacy Policy

This Twitch Privacy Policy applies to your use of www.twitch.tv, and any other websites, applications, or services provided, owned, or operated by Twitch Interactive, Inc. (with its affiliates, “Twitch”) that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Twitch Services”). Twitch values the privacy of users, subscribers, publishers, members, and others who visit and use the Twitch Services (collectively or individually, “you” or “users”) and wants you to be familiar with how we collect, use, and disclose personal information from and about you.

For purposes of data protection laws, Twitch Interactive, Inc., located at 350 Bush Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104, is the “data controller” of your information; with respect to data collected by Curse LLC in connection with the Curse websites and/or services, Curse LLC, located at 350 Bush Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104, is the “data controller” of your information.

You may share personal information when using the Twitch Services. One example is when you provide information about yourself as part of the Twitch account creation process. Another is when you take certain actions on the Twitch Services that are public or intended to be public in nature, such as when you broadcast content, participate in a chat room, post profile information, follow a channel, or subscribe to a broadcast channel. Given the social nature of some of the Twitch Services, that information may be collected, used, or disclosed by others who are part of that social interaction. In addition, some features of the Twitch Services are designed to provide others with information about user activity, such as identifying the user who created a particular Clip or the subscription status of users for a given channel. We encourage you to be mindful of this when considering your activity on the Twitch Services.

By agreeing to this Privacy Policy in your Twitch account setup, or by using the Twitch Services, you consent to the extent permitted by law to the information handling practices described in this Policy. Storage and access to cookies that are set in connection with the Twitch Services are governed by the Twitch Cookie Policy (“Cookie Policy”).

Personal Information Twitch Collects About You

We obtain information about you through the means discussed below when we provide the Twitch Services. Please note that we need certain types of information so that we can provide the Twitch Services to you. If you do not provide us with such information, or ask us to delete it, you may no longer be able to access or use the Twitch Services.

User-provided Information: You may provide a variety of information about yourself to us, such as your name, email address, postal mailing address, telephone number, credit card number, and billing information when you register for Twitch Services; upload, purchase, view, or download certain content or products from the Twitch Services; enter contests or sweepstakes; or otherwise use the features and functionality of the Twitch Services.

Automatically Collected Information: When you access the Twitch Services or open one of our emails, we automatically record and store certain information about your system by using cookies and other types of technologies. Cookies are small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters that are sent to your browser. For information about what cookies are, how they work, how Twitch uses them, and how to remove them, please see our Cookie Policy . Examples of such information we automatically collect include Internet Protocol address (“IP Address”), a unique user ID, device and browser types and identifiers, referring and exit page addresses, software and system type, and information about your usage of Twitch Services. Examples of how Twitch uses automatically collected information include to: (a) automatically update the Twitch application on your system; (b) remember your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you access the Twitch Services; (c) provide customized advertisements, content, and information; (d) monitor the effectiveness of marketing campaigns; (e) monitor and store aggregate site usage metrics such as total number of visitors and pages accessed; and (f) track your entries, submissions, and status in any promotions or other activities.

Information from Other Sources: We may obtain additional information such as demographic and statistical information from third parties and sources other than the Twitch Services, such as advertisers or social media networks (such as Facebook) for which you have approved our access. When you access the Twitch Services through social media networks or when you connect the Twitch Services to social media networks, you are authorizing Twitch to collect, store, and use such additional information and content in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We may also obtain information from third-party services (such as Riot or Steam) regarding your use of such services, including about your use of the content you choose to broadcast through the Twitch Services. We use this information to supplement the information we collect about you in order to provide more relevant, safer experiences for you with the Twitch Services and improve the Twitch Services, analytics, and advertising. If we combine or associate information from other sources with information that we collect through the Twitch Services, we will treat the combined information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

How Twitch Uses Personal Information

Twitch uses such information to operate, maintain, enhance, provide, create, and develop all of the features, functionality, and services (new or existing) found on the Twitch Services; provide security for our websites, products, software, or applications; manage relationships with Twitch account holders (e.g., Partners, Affiliates), including making or receiving payment; improve your experience with the Twitch Services by providing content recommendations and by delivering content that we hope you will find relevant and interesting, including advertising and marketing messages; allow you to comment on content, and participate in online games, contests, or rewards programs; prevent fraud and abuse; and understand the usage trends of our users.

We use your email address to communicate with you, including to notify you of major Twitch Services updates, for customer service purposes, or to contact you regarding any content that you have posted to or downloaded from the Twitch Services.

Twitch may periodically send promotional materials or notifications to you related to the Twitch Services. If you want to stop receiving promotional materials, you can go to your account settings once you have logged in to the Twitch Services or follow the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of any email from us. If you have installed a mobile app and you wish to stop receiving push notifications, you can change the settings either on your mobile device or through the app.

In certain cases, we have a legal obligation to collect and process your personal information (such as our obligation to share data with tax authorities).

We may also ask for your consent to process your personal information for a specific purpose that we communicate to you. When you consent to our processing your personal information for a specified purpose, you may withdraw your consent at any time and we will stop processing of your data for that purpose.

Twitch will rely on legal grounds to process your personal information to the extent permitted by applicable law, which may include, without limitation: to honor contractual commitments, to take steps in anticipation of entering into contract, to fulfill legal obligations, your consent, and Twitch’s legitimate interests.

When Twitch Discloses Personal Information

We share such information as described below:

We disclose such information to service providers working on our behalf, such as, to: provide website hosting, maintenance, and security services; fulfill orders; conduct data analysis and create reports; offer certain functionality; or assist Twitch in improving the Twitch Services and creating new services and features. We require that these parties process such information in compliance with this Privacy Policy, we authorize them to use the information only for the purposes for which it is provided to them, and we require them to use reasonable confidentiality measures.

Twitch may make information available to our affiliates (meaning entities controlled by, controlling, or under common control with Twitch), including Amazon.com, Inc. and its subsidiaries that are either subject to this Privacy Policy or follow practices at least as protective as those described in this Privacy Policy.

Twitch may disclose user information if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with U.S. state and federal laws or other applicable laws around the world (for example, in the country of your residence), or respond to a court order, judicial or other government request, subpoena, or warrant in the manner legally required.

Twitch also reserves the right to disclose information that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to protect Twitch from potential liability or from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; investigate and defend ourselves against third-party claims, or allegations; protect the security or integrity of the Twitch Services; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Twitch, our users, or others.

Other than as set out above, you will receive notice when personal information about you might be shared with third parties and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information.

Data Subject Rights and Your Choices

You may decline to share certain information with Twitch, in which case Twitch may not be able to provide to you some of the features and functionality found on the Twitch Services. If you have created a Twitch Services account, depending on the service, you may be able to update your profile information and preferences or disable your account by logging in and going to the settings page -- for example, www.twitch.tv. To learn more about how you can exercise your privacy choices, click here. For other requests to review, update, delete, or otherwise limit Twitch’s use of information that you have provided directly to Twitch, you may contact privacy@twitch.tv. In your request, please include your email address, name, address, and telephone number and specify all relevant background. To protect your privacy and security, we may take steps to verify your identity before granting you access or making corrections to your information. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information at all times.

Residents of the European Economic Area (“EEA”), can exercise certain data subject rights available to them under applicable data protection laws. We will comply with requests to exercise these rights in accordance with applicable law. Please note that in some circumstances, we may need to keep processing your information for certain legitimate interests or to comply with a legal obligation. If these rights apply to you, they may permit you to request that we:

Obtain access to or a copy of certain personal information we hold about you

Prevent the processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes (including any direct marketing processing based on profiling)

Update personal information that is out of date or incorrect

Delete certain personal information we hold about you

Restrict the way that we process and disclose specific personal information about you

Transfer your personal information to a third-party provider of services

Revoke consent that you previously provided for the processing of your personal information

For more information on how to exercise these rights, click here. If applicable, you may make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority in the country where you are based. Alternatively, you may seek a remedy through local courts if you believe your rights have been breached.

Account Closure & Deletion

If you would like to close your account and delete your profile information on www.twitch.tv go to http://www.twitch.tv/user/delete_account. For Twitch Services other than twitch.tv, you may update or delete information tied to your account, or close an account, by accessing the “My Account” area of the service or by submitting a help ticket to that service. If you close your account, Twitch may retain certain information about you for the activities described in this Privacy Policy, or as permitted or required by applicable law.

Third-Party Services and Websites

The Twitch Services may link to third-party websites or services. The privacy practices of those third parties are not governed by this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third-party websites and services to understand their practices.

If you connect to a third-party service (such as Facebook, Twitter, or another third-party application) through the Twitch Services or otherwise link your Twitch account with a third-party service, you are requesting and authorizing us to share or grant access to information on your behalf (such as your username, the fact that your connection originated from the Twitch Services, and other relevant usage and diagnostic information) with such third party. We may also send information about the content you watch or your activities on the Twitch Services to such third parties. For example, we may make information available to app developers, game developers, and game publishers to facilitate purchases and awards of digital goods, such as games and in-game items.

Extensions

The Twitch Extensions program allows broadcasters to embed interactive, custom, third-party content and applications on their channel pages. You can find out more about the specific Extension(s) operating on a given channel by clicking on the attribution links or icons that Twitch will make available on the channel page, for example, on the Twitch video player or at the bottom of an Extension's panel.

Interaction by a viewer with an Extension or with the channel on which the Extension is activated will provide the developer that operates the Extension with viewer information of the nature described above in “Automatically Collected Information.” Twitch does not provide access to your user name or ID to third-party Extension developers as part of the Twitch Extensions program unless you click “Grant Access” within the Extension or you install an Extension on your channel. You are responsible for any information you provide to the developer independently, for example, through a web form on the Extension or visiting that developer’s website.

We require Extension developers to process data about you for only the purposes set forth in our developer agreement. We encourage you to visit an Extension’s detail page to review any privacy policy posted by the developer, which may include additional information on their privacy practices.

Advertisers and Analytics Providers

We may use third-party Web analytics services in connection with the Twitch Services, such as those of Google Analytics, and its advertising features. These service providers use a variety of tracking technologies such as cookies to analyze how users use the Twitch Services. The information collected (described above in “Automatically Collected Information”) will be collected directly by these service providers to evaluate your use of the Twitch Services. For more information on how Google Analytics uses data from our websites and how you can control the information sent to Google, click here. To learn about opting out of Google Analytics, please click here. Because these opt outs are cookie-based, please note that if you get a new computer or device, install or start using a new browser, or erase or alter your browser’s cookie file, you may need to opt out again.

Twitch may allow advertisers, third-party advertising networks and third-party advertising serving companies to serve advertisements directly to you within the Twitch Services and other Twitch sites, services and software. By serving these advertisements directly to you, these companies can set their own cookies on your computer and trigger their own Web beacons and other tracking technologies to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements, and to collect and track information such as demographic information, inferred interests, aggregated information, and activity to assist them in personalizing the advertising content delivered to you. Twitch does not provide information that is intended to identify you personally to these third-party ad servers or ad networks without your consent. However, if you respond to an advertisement that targets a certain audience (for example, males age 20 to 25 who have participated in certain promotions), the advertiser or ad-server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience that they were trying to reach.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the tracking technologies and activities of, other advertisers, third-party advertising networks, or third-party advertising servers. You should consult the respective privacy policies of these advertisers, third-party advertising networks, or third-party advertising servers. For more information about third-party advertising networks and similar entities that use these technologies, see http://www.aboutads.info/consumers, and to opt-out of such ad networks’ and services’ advertising practices, for example, Google Analytics advertising features and Google’s use of cookies, go to the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out page, or the Your Online Choices page.

Do Not Track

Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. DNT is a way for users to inform websites and services that they do not want certain information about their webpage visits collected over time and across websites or online services. We are committed to providing you with meaningful choices about the information collected on our website for third-party purposes, and that is why we provide the Network Advertising Initiative, Your Online Choices and the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out links above. However, Twitch does not recognize or respond to browser-initiated DNT signals.

Data Security

Twitch uses a variety of managerial, technical, and physical measures to protect the integrity and security of your information. These measures may vary based on the sensitivity of your information. However, no security precautions or systems can be completely secure. We cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to Twitch, and you do so at your own risk. We cannot guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.

Retention of Your Information

We keep your personal information to enable your continued use of Twitch Services, for as long as it is required in order to fulfill the relevant purposes described in this Privacy Policy, as may be required (or permitted) by law such as for tax and accounting purposes, or as otherwise communicated to you.

Children’s Privacy

IF YOU ARE UNDER 13 YEARS OF AGE, THEN PLEASE DO NOT USE OR ACCESS THE TWITCH SERVICES AT ANY TIME OR IN ANY MANNER.

Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. For that reason, Twitch does not knowingly collect or maintain personal information (as defined by the United States Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) from persons under 13 years-of-age. If Twitch learns that personal information of persons under 13 has been collected on or through the Twitch Services, Twitch will take appropriate steps to delete this information.

If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child under 13 who has become a Twitch Services member, then please contact Twitch at privacy@twitch.tv to have that child’s account terminated and personal information deleted.

For residents of the EEA, where processing of personal information is based on consent, Twitch will not knowingly engage in that processing for users under the age of consent established by applicable data protection law. If we learn that we are engaged in that processing with such users, we will halt such processing and will take reasonable measures to promptly remove applicable information from our records.

Merger or Sale

In the event that Twitch, or some or all assets related to the Twitch Services are acquired by or merged with a third-party entity or in connection with a contemplated change of ownership transaction, we reserve the right, in any of these circumstances, to transfer or assign the information that we have collected from users as part of that merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control event, including in the course of diligence.

International Data Transfers

Information collected by Twitch may be stored and processed in your region, in the United States (for instance in our major data centers), or in any other country where Twitch or its affiliates, subsidiaries, partners, or service providers are located or maintain facilities. If we provide any information about you to any such entities, we will take appropriate measures to ensure such companies protect your information adequately in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Changes and Updates to this Privacy Policy

Twitch reserves the right to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time (for example to reflect updates to the Twitch Services or to reflect changes in the law). Please check this Privacy Policy periodically for those changes. Your continued use of the Twitch Services after the posting of changes constitutes your binding acceptance of such changes.

We will not materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of personal information collected in the past under a prior version of the Privacy Policy without the consent of affected individuals

Twitch Contact Information

Please contact Twitch with any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy at 350 Bush Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104 or by email to privacy@twitch.tv. We will respond to your inquiry within 30 days of its receipt. If you are a California resident, you may have this same information emailed to you by sending a letter to the foregoing address with your email address and a request for this information.

California Privacy Rights

California law permits users who are California residents to request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, a list of the third parties to whom we have disclosed their personal information (as defined by applicable California law) for their direct marketing purposes in the prior calendar year, as well as the type of personal information disclosed to those parties. Twitch does not currently disclose personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.